Gary Neville furious with British Airways after flight foul-up

Former Manchester United player ended up on a Virgin Train from Manchester to London

Gary Neville, the former Manchester United player, found little sympathy on social media after expressing anger at being overbooked on a British Airways flight from Manchester to Heathrow.

The former England international took to Twitter to say: “@British_Airways you are an absolute disgrace !! Overbooking flights and not getting people on .... worst airline I’ve ever seen!”

British Airways responded: “Hi Gary, we’re concerned to hear this. Could you DM us with some more information? We’ll certainly see if there is anything we can do. ^Sophie.”

The former player replied: “Can you stop this ridiculous practice? On our way to get the train and see if we can make our connect.”

Neville, now a pundit with Sky Sports, took a Virgin Train from Manchester to London. The train operator tweeted: “You’re always welcome onboard with us, Gary. Just keep your feet down ^CB.“ But it drew the response: “Aye but he’s only a former footballer so probably can’t afford to use your trains first thing on a Monday morning”.

The tweeted: “I never actually travel with @British_Airways as they are a shambles . But they have a monopoly on Manchester to Heathrow. @flybe @easyJet @jet2tweets so much better !!”

Neville’s followers offered sympathy and advice. Joe Kerr tweeted: “Not every sub can get on, Gary. You’ve got to earn your place.”

Grant Lunn said: “You’ve obviously never been on a Ryanair flight. British Airways are like Manchester United compared to Ryanair which are like Salford City.“

A BA spokesperson said: “Due to difficult weather conditions at Manchester this morning one of our flights was cancelled. This meant a small number of customers for the next flight were put on standby for a short time while we double checked that there were enough seats for everyone.

“We asked these customers if they could wait 15 minutes while we made these checks. Everyone who waited was able to travel on the flight, but we’ve been in touch with Gary to apologise.”

Neville arrived at Heathrow for his onward flight shortly before noon. He tweeted: “Just got to Heathrow via Piccadilly / Euston and Taxi!! 30 mins to spare.”